I spent three solid hours this afternoon cleaning up about 60% of the garden. There's a lot more to do before the rain comes tomorrow afternoon, but the bulk of it is done. It is over two weeks earlier than last year!

As much of I love my coreopsis, there is an awful lot of it to cut down in the Spring. Luckily the lack of any real precipitation in March and recent unseasonably warm temps has made everything nice and crunchy. I found an ant nest in the dead middle of one of my Karl Foerster grass mounds. I really need to divide those (and other) things.

All that cleanup revealed the things I hate about gardening-- Bouncing Bet, quack grass, sapling trees. After the cleanup, I'll probably make another futile attempt to get rid of some of it.

On the brighter side, lots of things are coming up-- pictures of those coming soon.

[update 4/2/10] It took another two hours this morning to finish. I bundled up the last of the debris just as the rain started.

The crocuses, squill and chionodoxa have been blooming for a week or so. I have high hopes that we'll finally see daffodils in this patch as well.

Two of the three hellebores I bought last Fall are flowering as well. I stepped on the emerging buds of the third plant during the Fall cleanup. Today, the first tulips showed their appreciation for the clear out by opening up. In addition to all the other tulips, the sedum, lady's mantel, euphorbia, irises, even the lilies and one of the clematis are starting to to make a showing.